Strong Enough
by Demon of the Sky
Summary: One of the Delightful Children From Down The Lane is doing his best to hide his uniqueness from his family but it's tearing him apart FINISHED! Epilogue up!
1. Real Me

Strong Enough  
  
Author Note: Be gentle, my first CNKND fic. It stars the Delightful Children From Down The Lane member who wears the football helmet. Please note, I've only seen a few episodes of the series so I might make mistakes.  
  
I really shouldn't be thinking this. I've always been such a delightful child, such a good boy. So Why I am I thinking this? Why do I envy those brats the Kids Next Door?  
  
I am Alfred, though not many people know my name, or the name of my siblings. We are always called Delightful Children From Down The Lane, we are never addressed to simply one of us, only to all of us. I have always gone along with this. I am the odd one out in some ways, always have been.   
  
I wear a football helmet as often as possible, even though I don't play the horrid sport. I protects me from any possible head injury that is risked every moment of my life. I always speak at the exact same time as my siblings, and we are almost always together. That's another reason I wear the helmet, we have always been so alike we do the exact same thing at the exact same time. But sometimes....I don't smile when everyone else does, or do when no one else does. I come close to laughing at....well...it may be hard to believe, but sometimes I can barely stop myself from laughing out loud at one of those Kid Next Doors jokes. The helmet prevents anyone from seeing my slip ups.  
  
I can't really complain about my life, I love my family. And I love what I am...most of the time. Sometimes I'll see the Kids Next Door, they have friends, they have individuality, they don't feel like outcasts. What am I saying?! I'm one of the Delightful Children From Down The Lane, those brats are my sworn enemies.  
  
But they are not, really. They are my siblings sworn enemies, but I am the same as my siblings...right? I can't bear the idea of leaving my life behind, but.....I don't know if I can stand it much longer. I want to do things we never do! Go out for fast food, play something, make new friends, we can't do this forever.   
  
I can't believe I'm thinking this, I am a Delightful Child...right? I don't need those things do I?   
  
I really don't know anymore, I feel like I'm going mad. Please, somebody help me! Would anyone understand? I'm unique, I want to be unique, but who do I turn to? Certainly not my family, and the Kids Next Door would never help me. Maybe I should forget the whole thing....but I can't, I'll slip up someday, a big slip up. Then I won't be able to hide it anymore.  
  
Soon I'll have to choose, my family or my freedom, and neither choice looks good. But, it's what I have to do, even if I can no longer be delightful, maybe in time my family will accept that.  
  
I am a Delightful Children From Down The Lane, but not for much longer. Please, call me Alfred, cause soon I will do the hardest thing I've ever done. I just hope it's worth it, I just hope I'm strong enough to survive it. 


	2. An End To the Pain

Authors Notes: Thank you Wallabee Beatles, Demon Angel, Miranda Shadowind, Numbuh8 and dgvrbr  
  
for the good reviews, hope you like the new chapter.  
  
Imagi your creative criticism is a welcome change for those who simply flame fics. You may have a point, but I hope you feel my story is becoming more creative.  
  
Alfred's POV  
  
I told them, they found out. I told them plainly, no more,  
  
No more evil schemes, no more bothering the Kids Next Door, no more being delightful. I told them what I was, who I was, and that I would no longer be what they wanted me to be, I would be my own person, not a delightful child, from now on I would be Alfred.  
  
They did not take it well. Not well indeed, they told me what a disappointment I had become, that I was a weak link in the chain, that I was nothing to them anymore. I had expected bad but.....that was over two weeks ago, and they have not said a word to me since.   
  
Why did I do it? Why was I so selfish? Why didn't I just continue being a member of the family? I've lost everything, my family was all I had. Maybe if I had friends, or something I wouldn't feel so bad. I wanted to take it all back, but then what? Just go back to being just as miserable?   
  
My siblings continued their plots and schemes in private, where I could not see or hear them. They always failed, naturally. One time, when one of the schemes gone awry had taken place in the house, I came face to face with the one called Numbuh 3. She looked at me, she clearly knew something was amiss, that there had to be a reason why I wasn't with my siblings, and had not been for a few of their schemes recently.   
  
"You're sad." Was all she said, somehow she saw through my mask, the helmet I always wore, somehow she knew what I was feeling. Before I could think of how to respond, a voice called her back to the fight, the voice of Numbuh 1. She looked at me worried, but then had to leave to help her teammates.  
  
Sad, yes I was. I wanted individuality, freedom and found none. I still even wear my helmet, I'm afraid of seeing what's under it now. I don't to know who I really am. I love my family, I always have and always will, was my betrayal so horrible? Was it so unforgivable?  
  
I hardly see them anymore, they avoid me, and now I avoid them. Avoid the icy glares they give me when I enter the room, I even eat my meals by myself. I'm no longer delightful, yay........but it turns out I'm miserable no matter what. Time to end it I suppose.  
  
I wonder what others will think when they find me.  
  
Will my siblings weep? Will the Kids Next Door? Will 3?  
  
People will say 'he was to young to do such a thing'. I'll probably even make the front page of the local paper: 'Local Boy Commits Suicide'. Though I wonder if they'll show a picture of my real face, or just me with my helmet.   
  
What will it say on my tombstone? 'Here Lies Alfred the Weak Link'? I reach into my bathroom cabinet, and pull out a bottle of aspirin. I've seen this on TV, it's supposed to be a clean way to go, if you want to end your own life.  
  
At least I won't have to worry about the pain, the anger or the loneliness anymore. I look in the mirror, and pop open the bottle. I'm not even going to take off my helmet, why bother?   
  
Goodbye my family. I'm sorry.  
  
End POV  
  
Alfred swallowed the contents of the bottle, he felt dizzy, then an incredible pain.  
  
Then he felt nothing, and the world became blurry and dark.  
  
To Be Continued 


	3. The Offer

What happened next was a blur. I can remember only bits and pieces. First there was a white light, which for a second I thought meant I was dead, it was actually a bright light in the operating room of a hospital. I remembers doctors voices, something about pumping my stomach, then I faded in and out.   
  
A remember seeing my siblings for a second, their faces were very hard to read. I remember the asking myself where was my helmet? I could feel it was gone. I can remember my doctors asking me questions. I must have been slipping in and out of consciousness, so it was fair to assume I had failed at my attempt of suicide.   
  
I opened my eyes, groggily. It seemed like waking up from a sleep that had lasted months, years even. I don't think I've ever felt worse, I have the worlds worst headache, and a pain in my stomach, I can feel tubes in my nose, and in my arm. Why didn't they just let me die?   
  
I looked next to me, machines that where monitoring his heart, and some other things were on each side of the bed I was on. I wonder how long I was out for. Everything was still kind of blurry, oh God....what if I had brain damage? That's what happens to some people who fail at these attempts.   
  
"Hello, Delightful Child from Down the Lane." I looked forward towards the voices, I could make out five forms...no not them.....please not them. The voice I recognized. I moved my mouth, not until then did I realize how sore my throat was.   
  
"Hello....Nigel." I croaked out. My vision was returning, more focused then before. I could make them all out.   
  
Numbuh 1 looked determined, like he wanted answers. Numbuh 2 looked nervous, uncomfortable. Numbuh 3 looked like she had been crying recently. Understandable, she was immature, she didn't understand what I had done nor that she should have been celebrating the passing of an enemy. Numbuh 4 didn't look very sympathetic, he had his arms crossed and a frown on his face. Numbuh five was hard to read, her hat over her eyes, maybe she didn't want anyone to know what she was feeling.   
  
"This is quite an interesting turn of events." Nigel said. "I must admit, at first I thought that you and your siblings where just trying to trick us into helping you, lead us into a trap. I thought they had found our hidden cameras."  
  
"Hidden cameras?" I didn't know about that. I caught a reflection of myself in a metal bar at the side of my bed. My brown hair was growing a bit wilder then usual.  
  
"Yes, last time we where at your house we put hidden cameras in most of the rooms so we could spy on you. So you couldn't get the drop on us, it was...hard to believe you were actually no longer talking with your siblings."  
  
"Numbuh 5 thinks the big surprise was what you tried to do." Numbuh 5 faced me, this was most uncomfortable.  
  
"Ya, you shudda come to us." 3 said, her voice weak and quiet.  
  
Numbuh 1 sighed. "I don't see why you felt the need to take your own life, if not for our cameras, and Numbuh 3's insistence that it wasn't an act you would probably be dead. We called an ambulance, and they where able to pump you stomach. You will be fine, not permanent damage."  
  
I couldn't believe it, they had saved me. Not my family, but my worst enemies.   
  
"You wouldn't understand." I looked away from them. "My siblings, we very close. I could not stand it all, I wanted to be my own person. I didn't want to try and destroy anyone anymore." I looked back to them. It took all but 3 by surprise, me wanting to be more then I was. " But when I told them, they rejected me because of it. My father rejected me. I found no freedom, no happiness like I thought I would. I was miserable not matter what, I just couldn't see anyway out of it."  
  
There was a silence.   
  
"That was only a cowards way out. It was not the answer, the path you chose was not an easy one." Numbuh 1 considered for a second. "But it is the best one. What your family does is wrong, it is right of you to want to quit."  
  
"Yes it was." Numbuh 2 assured.   
  
"Ya, he's right." Numbuh 4 added.  
  
"It doesn't matter." I replied. They just didn't get it. "You've been here since this started, haven't you?" I asked. Numbuh 1 nodded. "Has my family been here to visit me?" I asked. He didn't reply. "I didn't think so."  
  
Numbuh 4 stepped forward. "Look Delightful Ch-"   
  
"Don't call me that, my name is Alfred." I interrupted.   
  
"Right Alfred, look ya can't just give in cause your family a bunch of jerks, I mean your different from them, that's what this whole things about right?" I nodded. "You should be proud of dat, your not a jerk like them."  
  
Why wouldn't they just leave me alone. "No, but still miserable and now alone."   
  
"Not awone." 3 offered.   
  
"You hardly no me." I stated. "Until a while ago I was one of your worst enemies."   
  
"Not anymore." She smiled. Her cheerful attitude returning, it's a tad annoying really.   
  
"Alfred." Numbuh 1 said to me. "I know your going to be recovering for a while, but I do have an offer." He walked next to my bed. "You need your freedom, we can help you. Your family might try and use you now that they know about us helping you. We can give you a place to stay, and Kids Next Door headquarters can take care of things like making sure you can still go to school, and have your father lose guardianship of you." He handed me my helmet. It was slightly different.   
  
I looked at him, then the rest of the group. 3 looked at me more eagerly then the others. It was interesting.  
  
"I will have to thin about it." I told him finally, 3 looked disappointed ,she really was a sweet girl. Numbuh 1 nodded.  
  
"I understand, this is something that will affect your entire life."  
  
"Could you please leave me alone to think about it."   
  
"Of course, we're out." He signaled for them to leave.   
  
3 looked back to me. "I'll be back tomowrrow." She promised. As everyone left, Nigel was the last in the room walking to the door.   
  
"Numbuh 1." I said. He looked back to me. "Who is paying for my medical treatment?" I prayed it was my father, God knows he's rich enough. But, knowing him, a failure like me wasn't worth his money.  
  
"Kids Next Door headquarters is picking up the bill."   
  
"Thank you." I meant it, I really did.  
  
"No problem Alfred, do think about the offer." He left. I looked at my helmet. The same old helmet, one thing different. One big number 6 was painted on both the left and right of the helmet. It was tempting, tempting indeed, but could I really do it?  
  
To be continued. 


	4. Epilogue

Author's Note: Well it has almost been 2 years since I updated this story. I am very sorry. Lie conspired against me, from moving, to having to go into hospital, to insane writers block.

I figured I should finish my story.

Please note I wrote this before the revealed the helmeted boy's name was Lenny, so he is named Alfred in this fanfic.

Epilogue

So here I am, Alfred, Numbuh 6 of the Kids Next Door. If anyone had told me when I was younger that I would end up eating candy, watching horror movies and fighting my family's evil everyday my siblings and I would have destroyed them.

I see my siblings often, and my vast knowledge of them help my friends defeat them all the easier.

It was not easy for me to adjust for the first few months, and not matter where I went Kuki would follow me. Like she felt she had to protect me, in case I ever tried anything as stupid as try to kill myself again.

I do not think any of them besides Kuki believed I would remain loyal to the Kids Next Door, that I would betray them and return to my siblings. I never did, I never wanted to. I had barely survived my life with my brothers and sisters before, I could never return to that.

I brought my own skills to the team, deception, the ability of disguise. I still wear my helmet sometimes; it reminds me of what I was, and how lucky I am now. It is no longer my prison.

I have scar on my stomach from were they had pumped my stomach. I look at it sometimes when I have doubts, when I am afraid. I then know I can do anything, I have faced death and I did not want to again for a long, long time.

Years have passed, we have gotten older. And in a few cases more mature.

Between fights with bad guys and foiling my siblings, I have begun to look to Kuki in a new light. She smiles at me sometimes, and blows kisses to me when no on else is watching.

Wallabee is not happy about it, not in the least. A day will come when Kuki will have to choose between us. The problems of the heart are always the toughest problems of them all.

Nigel once asked me, do I still care about my siblings even though they drove me to killing myself and have attempted to destroy me on many occasions afterwards? I told him I do still care about my brothers and sister.

I still love them; it is not really their fault. Father is such a cold uncaring person. He always saw us as tools, minions to carry out his will, not his children.

Do I hate him? No, no matter what he's done he is my father. He became the way he was after losing our dear mother, the one person that kept him sane, she died of cancer when we were young.

I was the only one of my siblings who can remember our mother. The most loving caring person to ever walk the earth. I never stopped missing her; I still do to this day.

My new friends helped me deal with my issues, my loneliness, and my feelings of inadequacy. They are my new family, they look out for me that siblings should.

I'm happy.

Whether my romance with Kuki works out, or doesn't I know she will always care about me, always be there for me.

Despite Wallabee's jealousy, he may be more a brother to me then my actually brother.

Nigel, the greatest leader I've ever had the honor of knowing. Always ready to help me with his advice.

Abigail, quick witted, smart mouthed and possess a heart of gold. Ready to pummel anyone who should ever try and hurt me.

Hoagie, nervous, intelligent and so always ready to give a kind supportive word.

They are my family, and I would give my life to protect them. But I do hope it never comes to that.

My name is Alfred, I am my own person.

And anyone who tries to hurt my friends will pay dearly. I will see to it.


End file.
